Gracie5

Latest posts by Gracie5

I was surprised at how easily yellow rattle germinated in our grassy meadow and I think I sowed it early Spring, it's also an attractive little plant. The thing I love about having a meadow is the excitement when the flowers appear in Spring from scattering the seed in Autumn, it's brought a whole new dimension to my gardening and its only a small patch but I love it

The finches with their large beaks spit out a lot of the seed onto the ground but then ground feeders like the Chafinches, Wood pigeons, come along and scoop the lot. I only use sunflower hearts which is very popular. I too can't wait for Spring but in the meantime, the wildlife visiting is keeping me entertained.

They will come back, you might have competiton from neighbouring gardens which is a good thing if thats the case. Unfortunately where I live (a very built-up area of London) my garden seems to be the only wildlife haven, going by the manic feeding that goes on here.

We have a small meadow area in our London garden on clay soil. This year we decided to remove the grass as the soil was too rich and wildflower seeds struggled to compete. We have sown hardy annuals and planted perennials and in the Spring will sow the tender annuals. Below is a list of the plants we have chosen for the new meadow.

I've got a two year old Buzz and I can definitely say that they grow to 5ft and not smaller as some say in their write ups on this new variety. Blue chip looks like it actually grows to 2ft so would be perfect in a tub on a patio. Would be nice to have feedback from gardeners on how the plant grows when it becomes more established. Just to say that buzz just keeps on flowering constantly but I do dead head the spent flowers on a regular basis.

Violas seem to be prolific seeders so I thought I would give it a go and see what happens. I will also buy some plants to put on the garden table, away from nasty slugs. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

A friend once said how he hated that awful shrub Ceanothus, I told him to wash his mouth out and that it's a beautiful plant with gorgeous blue flowers. Years later I planted one in my small garden, it grew into a monster and a thug off a plant. I remembered his words and I now also hate this shrub. After we dug it out, and it wasn't easy, I vowed I would never, ever have that thug in my garden again.